[8] After the end of the Seven Years' War, France turned its attention to the Barbary corsairs, especially those of Morocco, who had taken advantage of the conflict to attack European shipping.

[13] A French squadron was led by Duchaffault de Besné, comprising a 52-gun ship Utile and 15 frigates, xebecs and galliots.

The expedition was a semi-failure since the French succeeded in setting fire to the ship approached without opposition, only one man was injured during the operation.

When the longboats rejoined the vessels, the French saw that the Moroccans quickly stopped the fire and that the operation was unnecessary.

According to Maurville, the French forces were ready to make another attempt but the lack of water in the river made it impossible to get the ships through.

Thus the frigates, the bombers and the chébecs begin to bombard the town of Larache until noon, they stop at lunch time, then start again from two hours.

Duchaffault also named the longboats which will participate in the destruction of the buildings which were in the port and formed other divisions intended to provide support.

As the longboats continued to advance, several Moroccans vessels hidden behind the rocks that line the entrance and interior of the river revealed themselves.

[4] The captured men are said to have participated in the construction of the city of Essaouira, which was being designed by Théodore Cornut for the sultan of Morocco, Mohammed ben Abdallah.

[14] The defeat at Larache led to a truce and a treaty between France and Morocco in 1767, with terms which were nevertheless favourable to French trade.